Raiders will tarp top of Mount Davis

RAIDERS

Updated 11:56 pm, Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The east-side third deck of 'Mount Davis' (top right) will be tarped, covering roughly 11,000 seats.

The east-side third deck of 'Mount Davis' (top right) will be tarped, covering roughly 11,000 seats.

Photo: Aaron Kehoe, Associated Press

Raiders will tarp top of Mount Davis

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Last season, the Raiders used the NFL's "85 percent rule," which allowed them to declare a sellout if 85 percent of their non-suite tickets were sold by Thursdays, and some 2-for-1 ticket deals to help sell games out and prevent local television blackouts.

This year, the team will use a new tool to aid those efforts - a black tarp covering roughly 11,000 seats at O.co Coliseum.

The new capacity of O.co will be 53,250 (down from 64,200) with the high east-side third deck being tarped off for Raiders home games, the team announced Wednesday.

The Coliseum will now have the smallest capacity in the NFL, by a good deal. Chicago's Soldier Field previously owned the smallest capacity at 61,500.

Roughly 4,850 Raiders fans are being moved to the lower west-side third deck, according to Raiders chief executive Amy Trask. All third-deck seat prices have been reduced to $250 for season-ticket holders.

That's down $10 for fans moving from the east-side high-rise structure known as "Mount Davis" to as much as down $360 for fans who have seats near the 50-yard line in the third deck (who were paying $610 per ticket). The Raiders are trying to make the relocation process fan-friendly for those moving and for those fans who already were on the west side.

The goal, Trask said, is to sell out the stadium with season tickets and "that all the fans walk away from this process feeling terrific."

"It's an ongoing commitment on our part to create a vibrant, vibrant game-day environment with a community of season-ticket holders," Trask said. And "we want to continue to provide the entire region with our games live locally on television."

The Raiders cannot reopen the "Mount Davis" and other east-side third-deck seats once they have been designated to be tarped off, per a league rule. Even if Oakland made the playoffs next season.

The A's have tarped off sections of the third deck since 2006 and now have a capacity of roughly 34,000.

Last year, the Raiders were able to sell out seven of the eight regular-season home games (plus one of the two preseason games). But since 1995, the team has televised 64 home games and been forced to black out 80 games.

Meanwhile, Trask said, all efforts remain focused on getting a new stadium built at the current site. "We love our site," Trask said.

The Raiders have had no recent discussions with the 49ers on sharing the Santa Clara stadium that's under construction, Trask said. But "we have not closed the door," she added.

Trask was asked if there had been any talks on a new stadium with Los Angeles officials and she said "the current site is the focus."

"We love the site on which we play," she said. "It is centrally located in the Northern California and Bay Area region. It is right on a major thoroughfare. It's got better ingress and egress than most public facilities in California. And, it has the best public transportation of any stadium in the National Football League.

"I think it's fair to note that of all the sports tenants on the complex, we are the one sports tenant that keeps saying, 'We want to stay.' "

The Raiders have another meeting with Oakland and Alameda County representatives about a possible new stadium and "Coliseum City" next week.

The team's lease at O.co Coliseum expires at the end of next season. There is nothing new on that front, Trask said.